PSM II — Tips and Tricks on how to pass on the first attempt

4 min readJul 23, 2020

This is my first post on Medium but I’m very excited to share my journey with you all.

Finally, after 3 weeks of studying, I achieved my PSM II (Professional Scrum Master II certification from Scrum.org) certification so today I am writing to share with you my experience on how I was able to successfully prepare and pass the exam.

If you’re already familiar with the PSM II exam structure go ahead and skip to Part 2.2 — Practice to be more confident in the real assessment.

My 1st recommendation would be to take the Prep Course for PSM II from Scrumprep.

1. Basic Information:

1. 1 Exam Structure

Some basic information about the PSM II Assessment Exam structure:

Number of questions: 30
Exam time limit: 90 minutes
Passing Score: 85%
Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer and True/False
Language: English
Fee: US $250
Difficulty: Advanced
Prerequisite: None
Organization: Scrum.org
Expiration date: None

1.2 Subject Areas

Subject areas which are covered in the exam:

Coaching and Facilitation
Cross-Functional, Self-Organizing Teams
Done and Undone
Maximizing Value
Product Backlog Management
Scaling Fundamentals
Scrum Framework
Scrum Theory and Principles

2. Preparation

There are literally thousands of websites and resources out there to get you through this assessment. At first, I was very confused because I didn’t know where to start, even Scrum.org Guide was too overwhelming for me.

Here is a recommended list of the most helpful resources I used to help me with the exam.

2.1 Reading Resources

First and foremost, I’m not sure how long ago you took PSM I or if you haven’t already, you need to re-read and understand the Scrum Guide thoroughly. This will be the basic foundation from which you will be tested on.
Understand each and every role in Scrum as it helps you visualize the situation better. Most questions in PSM II require you to know how to solve the real-life problem, instead of the theoretical one.
Choose and read these articles to dive deeper into all subject areas:

2.2 Practice Tests

Try to go through Open Assessments on Scrum.org to see how familiar you are with Scrum and which areas you need to practice most.
Honestly, the Open Assessments weren’t enough for me as there are limited and much simpler than the real exam. So I strongly recommend you take external Mock exams.

I was lucky to find ScrumPrep.com online, it includes pretty much everything I need to know before the real assessment. The website provides 3 practice exams of 30 questions with advanced level questions equivalent to the real exam. In addition, they are supplemented with clear explanations.

Preview for PSM II practice test on ScrumPrep.com

3. Taking the exam

Before taking the exam, get everything ready:

Good internet access
2 pencils + paper to make any notes or log question numbers you need to review again.
Make sure your environment is comfortable and quiet enough that you will not get distracted when taking the exam.

You need to buy a password on Scrum.org in order to take the assessment. It will be sent to you via email within one business day.

Depending on your preparation, be diligent about answering all questions and noting down ones you want to go back and review. Your time is limited so you may not be able to review all questions again. Note that it’s best to answer a question before moving to the next question, as you can always review and update later.

Most questions are quite long, up to 7–10 lines. The questions are spread out in all 8 subject areas above, about ⅔ in multi-choice questions, and the rest are in single choice and True/False questions. Make sure you only choose the BEST one(s) as there may be multiple valid answers.

This is how I used my 90-minute during the assessment:

I time box each question to a maximum of 3 minutes. Some questions you’ll be able to answer almost immediately and some will take some deeper thinking. Don’t get too caught up on one question as wasted time can compound and you may risk not getting through the entirety of the exam. If you’re not sure, take your best guess and note down the question number to review again at the end.
If you’re sticking to your timebox per question, you should have about 10 minutes remaining to review 5–7 questions. If you have more than that, try to prioritize as it will be difficult to review as many questions as you want.
With some practice, you’ll be able to maximize your opportunities for succeeding as I did.

That’s all, folks! Hope this article can help you achieve your PSM II. If you need any help or explanation on the practice tests, just give me a shout and I’ll be happy to help.